


warm in the snow

by slytherfuck



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Hogsmeade, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 11:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20134717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherfuck/pseuds/slytherfuck
Summary: It's their first date, and Lily wants to build a snowman.





	warm in the snow

His palms are sweating. Or it might be from the condensation on his butterbeer glass. Either way, he feels terribly warm and sticky, and not in the sexy way. Not that there is a sexy way anyway.

It has never been a secret that he likes Lily Evans. Everyone knows, what from all the times he's asked her out. But it was usually as a joke, as just another thing he loved to do to annoy her. It had become sort of a routine for him. Whenever he would see her he'd yell a corny pick-up line, each one more embarrassing than the last, just to see her blush furiously and to hear whatever new insult she could think of. Sometimes, she would just flip him off. It had become something everyone looked forward to when they saw James and Lily in the same room.

Except something changed. He started to stutter when he shouldn't have, his stomach jumped around when it wouldn't before and Lily's cheeks were pink rather than the red that always matched her hair when she was angry. He felt her perfume more acutely. He found himself not only admiring the clothes she wore, but how she wore them as well. He couldn't stop staring when she had lip gloss on. 

James doesn't know when he fell in love with Lily. But he's glad he did. Because she is sitting across from him and their feet are almost touching. She still has some snowflakes in her hair and her cheeks are red (not from the cold, he hopes) and her eyes are shiny (not from the drink, he hopes). Whenever he manages to make her smile he feels like a god. But then, when he looks at her, he realizes she is more godly than he could ever be. 

For her part, Lily is just as infatuated as him. But, if his feelings are so intense they're on the brink of bursting, hers are subtler, she feels them as an extension of herself. Like it's completely natural for her to love him. 

She has finished her drink. He hasn't. Her fingers are itching for something, she doesn't know what. As sure as she is of her feelings, she has no idea what she's doing, but when she looks at him, takes in his messy hair and his nervous gaze, the red in his cheeks and the twitching of his feet, she is sure he doesn't know either. Lily gently kicks him in the shin. When he looks at her, she smiles and says, simply:

"Let's build a snowman."

She watches his expression go from confusion, to understanding and then to excitement and he grins brightly at her, downing the rest of his drink. When they walk out of the door, she takes his hand. It's sticky, but she doesn't mind.

It takes a long time for them to find a patch of undisturbed snow, but at least they spend the whole time holding hands and bumping shoulders, feeling warm and comfortable despite the brutal January cold. Sometimes, one of them bends down to pick up a stone, while the other tries not to stare. 

They stop under a tree. James grabs his wand, but Lily takes it from him immediately, frowning playfully.

"We do this like Muggles."

She puts on her gloves and starts to gather snow. Her coat seems to be doing the same.

"What? Are you afraid of getting wet?" She teases, smirking up at him, and James immediately springs into motion, rolling the snow as fast as he can. He'll be damned if Lily Evans beats him at building a bloody snowman.

James is freezing by the time they finish. Unlike Lily, he doesn't have gloves. Well, he does, but they're his grandpa's and they're ugly and yellow. Lily's pockets, the ones on her coat that jingled from all the stones they picked up, are now being emptied, and she takes a step back, assessing her work like an ancient sculptor. She wants to give the snowman a face, maybe even a coat. 

As she inspects her materials, she notices all the stones were black. It made sense, most stones are black, but in that moment she wanted something to match the soft hazel of James' eyes and she hated black more than any other colour. As she gives their snowman his eyes, she can't help but laugh at how unfitting those small beady eyes look on him. Next to her, James has two branches and he sticks them to the snowman's sides as she finishes up the buttons to the imaginary coat he's wearing. 

A moment's silence as they take in their creation. In this moment, they feel younger than they'll ever be again.

"He doesn't have a nose." James states.

"Not everyone has a nose."

"But he's kind of ugly, don't you think?"

"Eh, he's not uglier than you, that's for sure."

When he looks at her he tries his best to look hurt, but he sees her smiling with her hair all over the place and he can't. So he does the next best thing, without thinking it, and he tackles her. She shrieks and tries to twist away, but they end up on the ground anyway, him under her and both of them out of breath but not from the fall.

They're in the perfect position for her to kiss him, she thinks. 

He isn't thinking anything, too busy just marveling at her.

Their lips meet halfway between thought and marvel. Their cold noses bump together, their cheeks get redder and it tastes a bit too much of butterbeer, but that's okay. Neither of them minds. 

When they finally make their way back to Hogwarts, they feel warm despite the dampness of their clothes or the biting cold of the wind, and they're holding hands again. Sirius whoops when she kisses him again in front of the stairs to the girl's dormitories and, as she makes her way up, James swears she is glowing.

**Author's Note:**

> james and lily are the only valid straight people in harry potter.
> 
> also i'm on tumblr @legitpotato if you like utter garbage.


End file.
